Magnesium burns quickly in flashbulbs when an electric current passes through it, providing a bright light for exposing film. Why do you suppose the inside of the bulb containing the magnesium is filled with a "noble" gas instead of air??
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The inside of the flashbulb containing magnesium is filled with a "noble" gas instead of air for a few reasons. First, let's understand what "noble" gases are. Noble gases are a group of elements on the periodic table that are known for their low reactivity and stability. They include helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon.
The main reason for using a noble gas, such as argon or xenon, inside flashbulbs is to prevent the magnesium from reacting with atmospheric oxygen in the air. Magnesium is highly reactive and readily reacts with oxygen, resulting in the formation of magnesium oxide. In a flashbulb, this reaction would happen too quickly if air were present. By filling the bulb with a noble gas, which is chemically inert and does not readily react with other substances, the magnesium is protected from prematurely burning and reacting with oxygen.
Another reason for using noble gases is that they are good electrical insulators. Flashbulbs require a high voltage to ignite the flash, and noble gases provide an environment that does not conduct electricity readily. This ensures that the flashbulb only ignites when the desired electrical current passes through it, enhancing safety and control.
To summarize, the use of a noble gas inside flashbulbs that contain magnesium helps prevent the magnesium from quickly reacting with oxygen and burning up prematurely. Additionally, noble gases act as good electrical insulators, ensuring that the flash only occurs when the appropriate electrical current is passed through the bulb.
Oxygen (play /ˈɒksɪdʒɪn/ OK-si-jin) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς (oxys) (acid, literally "sharp", referring to the sour taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter), because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition.
Oxygen is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table, and is a highly reactive nonmetallic period 2 element that readily forms compounds (notably oxides) with almost all other elements. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless, odorless, tasteless diatomic gas with the formula O2. By mass, oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen and helium[1] and the most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust.[2] Diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20.8% of the volume of air.[3]
All major classes of structural molecules in living organisms, such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, contain oxygen, as do the major inorganic compounds that comprise animal shells, teeth, and bone. Oxygen in the form of O2 is produced from water by cyanobacteria, algae and plants during photosynthesis and is used in cellular respiration for all complex life. Oxygen is toxic to obligately anaerobic organisms. Anaerobes were the dominant form of early life on Earth until O2 began to accumulate in the atmosphere roughly 2.5 billion years ago.[4] Another form (allotrope) of oxygen, ozone (O3), helps protect the biosphere from ultraviolet radiation with the high-altitude ozone layer, but is a pollutant near the surface where it is a by-product of smog. At even higher low earth orbit altitudes atomic oxygen is a significant presence and a cause of erosion for spacecraft.[5]
Oxygen was independently discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in Uppsala, in 1773 or earlier, and Joseph Priestley in Wiltshire, in 1774, but Priestley is often given priority because his publication came out in print first. The name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier,[6] whose experiments with oxygen helped to discredit the then-popular phlogiston theory of combustion and corrosion. Oxygen is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquefied air, use of zeolites to remove carbon dioxide and nitrogen from air, electrolysis of water and other means. Uses of oxygen include the production of steel, plastics and textiles; rocket propellant; oxygen therapy; and life support in aircraft, submarines, spaceflight and diving.
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